Neupogen shots

Here is how I understand this first part of HSCT

One dose of chemotherapy that calms down the immune system, followed by a week of daily Neupogen shots to entice the stem cells from the bone marrow to the blood.

The immune system is my enemy right now and the unwanted effect of Neupogen shots is to get the immune system overactive. So maybe the chemo round now makes sense?  Chemo counters the overactive immune system.

Then the ‘Harvest’ day is when the stem cells are picked out of the blood and frozen for use in part 2 of HSCT.

I am currently in the middle of the Neupogen shot days.

These are daily injections that are given to a fatty layer of skin. I belong to the majority population with no dearth of fatty tissue, so the shots have been easy so far. Lets hope the neupogen is doing it’s magic.

BUT things to note:

The first round of Chemo was a big hit to my White Blood Cell count. The hit was expected, except maybe not to this degree. So wash hands, stay away from sick people, eat only cooked food (no salads), wash hands (did I say that already? Never mind, it is important)

Another thing the chemo has done is that it has depleted my platelet counts. Google will give you all the colorful side effects of that, but for me this has meant fatigue. I now have a fancy new cane to walk around with. No more saying “Oh it is just a twisted ankle” while hobbling around with my hiking pole. Also since a low platelet count can mean easy bruising I have been tasked by my family to not move a muscle. You know how you want to do the opposite of the doctor’s orders sometimes? No? Well, I want to go for a jog.

My next update will be on harvest day and hopefully when all that is done I get to fly back to Austin to my little-big-boys.